- 19 hours ago
Willard and Dibs discuss the impact LeBron James' family may have on his free agency decision and debate if that may give the Warriors an advantage.
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00:00know the world is very very small now when you're a billionaire so you can get where you want to
00:04be
00:05and when and how and all of those things so um we'll paint the picture that becomes reality
00:11you're kind of painting that family picture and you might be right um in this moment on calci
00:16cleveland is the favorite at 33 the warriors are at 32 wow okay that's how close we are
00:23to the warriors being the favorite again which is what they were a number of weeks ago yeah
00:28and maybe it's because the money that's going into the calci market is reflecting or reflective
00:33rather of what you've been saying for more than a week the longer this goes the better you feel or
00:39the more you feel that he's going to come to the warriors it's it's it makes sense of why
00:46if it's the warriors the other ones i would have questions not that that matters who cares if we
00:52have questions but if he signs with philadelphia next week i think one of the re the things that
00:58people will ask is why why did that take so long that that's a that's a baked cookie man
01:05just eat it or don't right it's getting stale like what do you know what i mean like what would
01:12be the
01:12reason if he's joining philly for not just doing it right unless he's waiting for something else to
01:18happen even if he's intending to go to philadelphia the longer he waits the more you're waiting for
01:24something else to grab your attention yeah i don't know i don't know but like that's what it feels like
01:31to me it feels like shams is just sitting here every day going it's not the warriors it's not the
01:38warriors and everybody's going i'll take it to warriors it's not the warriors like but why are you
01:44telling everybody it's not the warriors is it because it's not the warriors or because somebody
01:49wants it to feel like it's not the warriors so they can either have the element of surprise or
01:54the art of negotiation i don't know i i don't know but that's that's kind of how it feels let
02:00me run down
02:01the um the western conference basketball teams and you tell me like make a noise
02:13greg cosell coming up in two months make a noise if you think this team is better clearly better
02:21than a healthy lebron included warriors team are we talking about april where jimmy's back or
02:32season as a whole okay because so half a jimmy i will presume i'll even say a third of jimmy
02:38because i think that's more likely no but but assume all things you know good because that's
02:45what we do in the off season all these teams are healthy as of today all right so uh so
02:50make a noise
02:51when they're clearly better than the warriors better i want to know how many honks we get okay
02:56oklahoma city uh san antonio uh utah uh the dallas mavericks
03:06uh the minnesota timberwolves bop bop um the houston rockets
03:16okay phoenix suns i love john bloom the portland trailblazers on the rise but no double hunk
03:28los angeles lakers nah sorry kavan the los angeles clippers no no you don't have to make any noise at
03:39all if it's no noise do what i want i got a microphone right here turn it off mark
03:45bleep you guys mark and dibs um the new orleans pelicans the memphis grizzlies
03:57the sacramento kings adorable um the denver nuggets yeah i'll go i'll double honk it
04:10i think you guys have the warriors as fifth yep that's right and even at that i would throw utah
04:16in portland and as the next teams in that that little grouping really i think portland's gonna
04:23be portland's gonna be intriguing in utah utah's gonna be a tough matchup wait you're putting those
04:28teams ahead of houston and the lakers i don't love what the lakers have really they're rolling out
04:33yeah i'm just not snow time excuse me snow time yeah snow time not you don't like it no okay
04:41snow
04:41time that's what they're calling them okay because he's white they got a bunch of white guys gotcha
04:46okay best players are all white yeah and i snow time lakers i just don't think that they have enough
04:53that would scare me personally but but but portland and utah utah utah's got like 11 seven footers
05:01and a good backcourt i think and a great rookie i think that they're going to be a team that
05:06will be
05:07one with whom you should reckon portland might be a stretch but yeah okay i got them at fifth i
05:13mean
05:13you could yeah me and grandy and co-sell we all had them at my my fifth so so what
05:19mark spears said
05:20is far from crazy now work on your material right we are he said i got the warriors right around
05:28fourth
05:29and again that's presuming health which i think is a wild presumption with an older team
05:34kind of is for everybody to be honest with you yes but when you have an older team i think
05:38it's
05:38even more of a wild presumption sure it is but let's not act like you know we got to the
05:43playoffs
05:43and the lakers were missing two of their best three players and they were the two younger ones
05:47so um we got to the playoffs and anthony edwards was missing games um victor women yama got hurt in
05:56the playoffs for a short period of time yeah they weren't serious injuries not all of them but um i
06:03don't know man yeah like yes is it a higher likelihood sure are they going to have as bad of
06:09luck as they
06:09had last year i doubt it i doubt it i think that our area is is um injury scared after
06:202026 well i just
06:21i look at the reality of runner's knee which i think is a it might be a chronic condition i'm
06:28not his
06:29doctor but i'm a radio doctor and that's one of those ones that may crop up again either way steph's
06:34going to need some rest and lebron will need some rest and jimmy butler likely out until february
06:40based on the return to play protocols and moses moody may not play at all so as you navigate the
06:47first part of the season without jimmy and moses and you know steph not playing every night and lebron
06:52the same and horford and chris taps i do think that the names on paper are better than the availability
06:58will be what month did jimmy get hurt his surgery was in february okay which that's really the key
07:04i think it was uh february 3rd or 4th that's the key date off of which you you base it
07:11and the
07:11majority of the the data or data depending on which way you go with it says that it's 9 to
07:1612 months
07:17but he is 36 and so i would lean toward the 12 as opposed to the 9 i'm gonna take
07:23the under on
07:23february uh okay jimmy butler i'm gonna take the big time under on the big time under okay yeah and
07:30i
07:30don't know where he is rehab wise but i mean what they tell us is good right but for whatever
07:38that's worth and i think it was a clean acl tear meaning you have just the acl might be january
07:44but i wouldn't even rule out december wow okay i mean we'll see when he when he gets into camp
07:51and
07:51at least shows up but them also might be affected by what the warriors are doing it might you know
07:57and it might also be affected by what they do between now and the start of the year in other
08:03words if they if they sign lebron then jimmy might be more motivated to bust his hump and make it
08:10back
08:11and if the warriors come out slow with no lebron and they're sitting on december 15th at 10 and 17
08:18well maybe jimmy butler's gonna slow play his return i would argue that this exercise we just
08:23did should make warrior fans more excited than maybe they even are about the prospect of lebron
08:28joining we could do the same exercise without lebron and just okay this is your team yeah but nobody's
08:36happy like nobody even thinks that that's a playoff team that's the point of the exercise though like
08:40to your point we already know that i guess my point is i'm i'm trying to access how much better
08:45do you
08:45think this makes the warriors and when i hear so many people sort of say oh it'd be fun it'd
08:52be
08:52interesting but it's not like it makes them a factor in the west and then we do this exercise and
08:59you say
08:59they're fifth i think fifth is a factor i don't think it's like top of the heap but it's a
09:06factor
09:08it's definitely a factor houston was fifth in the west this year um the champion was the was that was
09:17a
09:17three seed so like yeah favorites no but a factor well definitely a factor okay well i don't hear a
09:26lot of
09:26people say that well he he addressed today that that that he hears the voices about boy you join them
09:33you're still a play-in team i don't think they're a play-in team with lebron james i don't either
09:40and part of it is dependent on what kind of a season it is because two years ago as you
09:46recall the warriors
09:47won 48 and they were the seven seed but they were two games behind the three seed so between three
09:55and
09:55seven was a two win differential last year was more of a normal year where you know the the fifth
10:02seed
10:03was i think 12 games ahead of where the warriors were at 10 so just depends on how it shakes
10:08out
10:08i do think next year in the west it's probably okc and san antonio again and then it's a you
10:14were
10:14denver uh the warriors with lebron i think utah's in the mix but three through seven or eight next year
10:21will be a tight group so a five to ten this last year was 15 games yeah yeah and that's
10:2615 game
10:27difference and part of that was because of the blatant nature of tanking by so many teams for
10:33sure for sure uh rich in nevato next up hi rich thanks for calling thanks guys thanks for taking
10:39my call really appreciate your show it's always wonderful to hear you um i'd like to say a few
10:44things about lebron potentially coming to the bay and um i'm gonna start off by first saying um
10:52i'm still licking my chops against that loss to cleveland when he went back to cleveland and and
10:58um he kind of did that joke about steph and and um thompson putting their tombstones on a cake or
11:08something to that effect not that that has anything to do with it but i still think about that quite
11:12a
11:13bit is what i'm saying as a hard hardcore w fan the other thing is that i honestly do not
11:19see it i don't
11:20see lebron and draymond getting along for an 84 game season let alone going into the deep part of
11:29the season if they made it and then lastly wait wait why not rich why not did you hear mark
11:35spears
11:36today were you listening when he came on last hour you know and and and as they say in the
11:43nfl it looks
11:44it looks and sounds good on paper well there was one there was one comment he made that i wanted
11:50to
11:50make you aware of i wondered if you heard it he said that uh i i did not what did
11:54he say there's
11:55no other player in the whole nba that is closer to lebron james than draymond green
12:04you know i said that about my ex-girlfriend too uh well apology okay
12:08um
12:12i mean sure on guys really i mean you really and and you're and you're buying that really no no
12:18i don't
12:19buy it i don't i don't i don't i don't buy it for one game i don't buy it for
12:2384 games
12:24and lastly let me say this before okay before you guys cut me off i think lebron coming to the
12:29bay
12:29would do just as much as philip rivers did for indianapolis and the nfl last year oh wow
12:35and that's all i have to say so thank you yeah rich thank you um uh philip came off the
12:41couch
12:42philip yeah after what five years away philip couldn't move lebron just won a playoff series
12:47without the other top two players on on the team right so like i i'm kind of with lebron on
12:53this
12:54the whole diminishing of him because he's 41 i don't know if he's he's not a top five player anymore
13:00but he's damn well still a top 15 player in this league i don't even think that that's debatable
13:05number one uh now if you're predicting that draymond and lebron are too volatile and there
13:11would be a problem over an 82 game season you can sure predict that but there is no questioning
13:17mark spears on whether or not these two guys are really really close friends mark is mark is tapped
13:25into draymond green i promise you this and mark is tapped into the league and if he says that those
13:31are as close of friends as either of them have in the league i believe him and i think that
13:37we
13:37already kind of knew that anyway do you travel to puerto rico in your off season with people that
13:44you're not tight with there's two kinds of friends in this world there's your friends right then
13:49there's your friends you travel with exactly those are different it's funny because my two older kids
13:54are in their 20s and there were some good friends of ours when they were kids and some we would
14:00travel with and some we were friends with but we wouldn't travel with them and some we traveled
14:04with just about every single year so there's levels to everything and when you have your off time and
14:10you are making this decision and you decide to go to puerto rico with another person you're probably
14:15good friends with that person and i don't think draymond said hey can i just tag along so i can
14:20pitch
14:21you for four days other friends and friends take trips guy trips yep puerto rico let's do it
14:28let's bring kevin hart i mean you have to you want somebody around as funny you know somebody
14:33who can break the room up a little bit oh oh there's a piece in here about lebron and golf
14:38actually
14:39a lot and he talks about how as a kid he could never get into country clubs and you know
14:44now he's
14:44a member at firestone which is out there in uh akron i believe and he's very passionate about making
14:50golf accessible to people of color and rich even said like rich climate who did the interviewing
14:56said yeah but you know if you go to the east golf is shut down in november december and lebron
15:02said
15:02uh it's gonna be simulators i'm all about the simulator and i'm gonna make the main thing the main thing
15:08when it's basketball season so the idea of oh he'll come here because he can golf all year round
15:14well it's true but he's kind of making it seem like the whole golf thing is more of a after
15:20the
15:21career and in the summer i'm sure golf is not the number one motivator for lebron james but i also
15:26think he's going to publicly poo poo to some degree any specific thing because if he doesn't it'll start
15:35giving away clues and he's not ready to make it make the call right so that's the way he's gonna
15:41play
15:41it that's the way lebron has always played it and what i'm getting from this interview which is
15:45fascinating i tweeted it i hope you can spend some time and read it but it might come down to
15:51those
15:51two ladies in his life his wife and his daughter always in many ways yeah i mean can you imagine
15:58are you making any big decisions without your wife and daughter well let's just let's just pretend
16:03that i get an opportunity of a lifetime uh at the beast 980 it comes back to life down in
16:09los
16:09angeles and it's going to be an unbelievable opportunity for your boy you know double my
16:15salary and i get to go back to the beast so i go to my wife offering you 40 grand
16:20huh 38 but you
16:22rounded up i appreciate it so i go to supper who's taught in the east bay for 20 years and
16:27my daughter
16:27who's now grown up in the town where her mom grew up and i say hey the beast is calling
16:31the beast
16:33i think we're going to la she looks at me side-eyed and said i don't want to ever want
16:38to hear that out
16:39of your mouth again because they're the boss so now this is a little different because he's lebron
16:44james but if the daughter and the mom really really don't want him to be across the country
16:49that might be it that might be and and i look i mean he might not want to be away
16:55from them right
16:57you know well you think about there are actually family people in this world that aren't begging to
17:02get away from the people in their home right and i think he's one of them yeah i don't i
17:07don't know
17:07i i don't know lebron i have no idea i always think that that's a funny thing the the cynicism
17:14in life
17:14you know what i mean like we were joking about it last week with the lovely christy picking up golf
17:19oh boy oh yeah well there there goes your alone time i'm thrilled that that she wants to be out
17:26there i i i like being around my people maybe he's like that too i don't know i i don't
17:33know but
17:34the fact that he's talking about it publicly mark spears is not wrong that that is a feather in the
17:40cap for the warriors yes and i think about you as mark spears was laying that out and i was
17:46looking at
17:46the age of lebron's daughter and she'll be 12 in october and you know you are at a point now
17:51where
17:51little guy jude in six years he's going to be a high school graduate and you're going to be an
17:58empty nester and there's freedom in that i'm going to be an empty encounter is what i'm going to be
18:03fair
18:04yeah fair although your daughter should be out of college by then and maybe your older son as well
18:08and all three of them could be in college together and you'll have to work seven jobs as opposed to
18:12the
18:12five but if you start to look at you know there's an end date on you having a little guy
18:17as a little guy in your house and so the moments you get now you don't get those back and
18:24i think
18:24that you know you get to be our age certainly but his age and you realize that not only is
18:29nothing
18:29promised but this time it goes by fast really fast yeah ben in concord is next hi ben thanks for
18:35calling hey gentlemen how you guys doing great man what are you up to i was just driving on the
18:4424 back to the house and i figured i'd check out 95 7 the game and you guys got me
18:50all excited about
18:51this potential starting lineup of lebron curry dream on butler and the big man and i'm thinking
19:00about the bench the bench would be loaded too if moody comes back healthy you have i can't remember
19:08if melton is still on the team he is they don't watch the don't forget about pods now you got
19:13this
19:14rookie you got podzinski i was like man that's a tough team to face right there i'm thinking the
19:22rest of the league really doesn't want lebron to come to the warriors i'm getting a little excited
19:28look at you ben yeah i just wanted to look at you guys got me all gassed up like what's
19:33going on
19:34over here i'm like the 95 7 the game is just give me a little bit of goosebumps well good
19:40it could
19:40happen it could happen ben ben thanks very much that might be the first person i've heard call this
19:46station in the last year and a half excited about roster construction seriously you know what i mean
19:52and what that says to me because ben's not wrong um and that's why this whole thing i feel like
19:58is
19:59a little stressful for people even those who didn't love the idea of lebron he does feel like a linchpin
20:05and i know that they've got to stay healthy or healthier uh than they were that that's a given
20:11and that may not happen um but if you put lebron on this team it does kick everybody down the
20:17bench a
20:17little bit and you start to think about the second half of the year and if jimmy butler could come
20:21back and all of that and uh suddenly you're like you know what i mean sure it's old but um
20:28it's viable
20:29and there is some youth who will participate and contribute do you know what i mean pods is on the
20:36team yaxo's on the team gee santos is on the team there is some youth who will contribute to all
20:43of this
20:43but without lebron and the injury questions that are there i don't even think that the warriors are
20:49suddenly awful but they feel one injury away at all times from being just not not enough right
20:58not enough at the top of the heap because if if you have lebron and jimmy eventually comes back
21:04in let's just say the warriors in mid-march when jimmy's starting to really feel comfortable again
21:09you've got steph and jimmy and lebron three legit scores chris stapps again assuming health there's
21:15another legit threat yaxo at the end of a rookie year pods and his pluckiness off the bench horford
21:22shooting threes melt who can do some things you start to really look at a team that is kind of
21:27diversified when healthy
21:29you
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